Navigating Ambiguity Design

Overview:

The process of observing, developing and testing hypotheses, and iterating is a

fundamental process when navigating an ambiguous challenge or goal, including

learning, exploration (scientific and otherwise), and creative endeavors.

Our hypothesis is that not only is this process extremely valuable but that

humans seem to have evolved to appreciate this process. Research such as The

Progress Principle validates this hypothesis. The very existence of puzzles

(jigsaw, crossword, Sudoku, Portal, Angry Birds, ST Math, Dragon Box), activities

that have been enjoyed by people of all ages and nationalities for centuries but

that otherwise seem quite dry and boring (you can literally see the picture on the

box when you do a jigsaw puzzle), further validates that the raw components

navigating ambiguity (making tangible progress toward a goal in an iterative

fashion with good feedback loops) may be at the root of the engagement puzzles

provide. The concept of Flow and the fact that scientists and creative

professionals from all industries may express how their work feels like solving a

puzzle as an expression of its inherent interestingness provides further evidence.

This combination of usefulness and engagement is why we hypothesize the

puzzle metaphor and how it helps us navigate ambiguity would be a valuable

foundation for a school to build on top of.

General Principles:

●Set goals at the beginning. Why are the students there?

●This is about navigating ambiguous spaces alone and in a group

○Different skills are required in a group vs alone

●Personal interests and internships or independent/small group projects are

a great way to explore truly ambiguous spaces.

○Try to find adult mentorship

○Small peer groups to help brainstorm, support the work

●Exposure to different structures to help with the puzzle-solving skills

○Puzzle Solving Skills

■Observation

●Identifying and Questioning assumptions

●Asking good questions

●Reframing the problem

●Examine the ecosystem (systems thinking)

■Develop and test hypotheses

●Developing many hypotheses

●Picking a hypothesis to test (low hanging fruit / ROI)

●Testing and seeking feedback

○Improving conditions for higher quality feedback

■Iteration

●Reflect (retrospective)

●Reintegrating information back in to understanding

●Repeat, recognizing nonlinear progress

○Make progress more visible (e.g. journaling)

■Within A Collaborative Environment

●Over-communication

●Creating safe spaces

●Multi-directional feedback

○Retrospectives can really help

○Anonymous feedback?

○Structures

■Design Thinking (Innovators Compass)

■Scientific Method (find ways to control for variables, validate

hypotheses more objectively)

■Lean Startup (get out and validate)

■Agile Methodologies (find ways to increase iteration rate and

improve feedback quality)

■Effective Brainstorming

■Failure Storm

■Retrospective

■Low-Hanging Fruit (ROI)

Rough Activities Brainstorm

●Self assessment

○What do you enjoy?

■Why do you enjoy it?

○What are you good at?

■What makes you good at it?

■What activities would take advantage of this strength?

○What are you bad at?

■What makes you bad at it?

■How could you improve it?

■Do you want to improve it?

○What do you think is interesting?

●Small group brainstorming

○Help each other brainstorm on different projects

●Independent / Small Group Project

○What is the smallest project you could do that you would find

interesting?

○What are the baby steps you can take?

●Iterative reflection and feedback sessions

●How can you make the experience more iterative?

○Progress Principle

●What does quality look like?

○How will you know if you are doing a good job?

○Who would you trust to assess the work and provide feedback?

●Internship

○Is there an internship that sounds interesting to you?

●Retrospectives

○What went well this week?

○What were you concerned or confused by?

○What went poorly this week?

●Failure-storm

○Why is this going to go badly / fail?

○What can we do to prevent those scenarios?

○Are those scenarios really that bad?

○Help people move past their fears.

●Design-Thinking (Innovators Compass)

○Provide a problem that has interesting elements (especially the

different stakeholders involved) to demonstrate how to use the

compass.

○Pick a problem and run through it with Innovators Compass?

●Questioning exercise

○How many questions can you come up with

○How can you reframe the problem or look at it from a different

perspective

○Right Question Institute

Specific Scaffolded Schedule

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Jared Cosulich

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